Home Office

Immigration Controls

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: To ask His Majesty's Government why no reason is given to inward travellers for being held for 6 hours; why they are offered no food or drink during such detention; and why no apology is offered when nothing untoward has been found in their travel to the UK.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: A passenger remains liable to examination on arrival in the United Kingdom until all necessary enquiries have been concluded and a decision is made on their application for permission to enter or admission.Anyone detained beyond two hours is detained in compliance with the relevant guidance and legislation (notably The Short Term Holding Facility Rules 2018). The detained person is informed of their bail rights and reasons for their detention, and this is explained in a language that they understand.Temperature controlled food was temporarily withdrawn from BF managed facilities during 2023 whilst we implemented a new training and governance procedure to ensure we were complaint with current food standards. Throughout this period, we followed Government guidance, continuing to serve water, hot drinks and snacks.We always look to minimise detention as far as possible; however, the power to detain must be retained in the interests of maintaining effective immigration control.It would not be appropriate for Border Force to apologise for conducting legitimate border security checks.

UK Border Force: Complaints

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: To ask His Majesty's Government what procedures Border Force has in place to learn lessons from incidents of unnecessary detention or of the loss of paper-work such that a complaint takes 11 months to process.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: A Transformation Programme of work is currently underway to reduce the time taken to process incoming complaints within service level agreement. Part of the programme includes identifying and sharing lessons learned to improve the overall service at the border and monitor detention related complaints.

Stone: Theft

The Earl of Clancarty: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to combat the theft of stone from historic sites.

The Earl of Clancarty: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to improve crime reporting in relation to national heritage, including through the development of a heritage crime marker to highlight protected sites and other cultural property in police call handling.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 48% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010; however, this Government recognises the significant impact crimes affecting heritage sites can have.The Home Office is working closely with Historic England to prevent and tackle theft from historic buildings, monuments and sites, and through the established, expert Stolen Goods Working Group, is collaborating with policing and other partners, to deliver a programme of work that will make it harder for criminals to profit financially from acquisitive crime, including heritage crime. The Home Office has encouraged the police, as part of their neighbourhood policing commitment, to work with communities to develop an understanding of the scale and extent of these crimes, whilst welcoming their commitment made last year to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry so more perpetrators can be bought to justice. In addition, crime prevention advice is published by Secured By Design, the police security initiative, including advice on how to improve the security of buildings and their surroundings, here: Secured by Design - Secured by Design.

Undocumented Migrants: Tunisia

Lord Patten: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment, if any, have they made of the number of illegal migrants who have reached the UK from or via Tunisia in each of the last 3 years.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: The Home Office publishes statistics on detected irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release published on gov.uk. Data on detected irregular arrivals by nationality is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’ with the latest data up to the end of December 2023.Please note these statistics do not include details of countries of transit, and nationality may differ from country of origin.Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets (xlsx, 1261.9KB)

UK Border Force: Complaints

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town: To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints to Border Force are not answered within the service standard of 20 days.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: The latest transparency data showing performance against service standards in relation to replies to customer complaints for UKVI, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force is available at the following: Customer service operations data: Q3 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).Customer service operations data: Q3 2023 (xlsx, 24.1KB)

Asylum: Housing

The Lord Bishop of Leicester: To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the National Audit Office’s report Investigation into asylum accommodation, published on 20 March, which found that (1) using large sites to accommodate asylum seekers could cost £46 million more than using hotels, and (2) the Home Office rated their own plans as “high risk or undeliverable”, why the large sites accommodation programme will be continued.

Lord Sharpe of Epsom: The Government has always been clear that the use of asylum hotels is unacceptable, and that’s why we acted swiftly to reduce the impact on local communities by moving asylum seekers on to barges and former military sites.Thanks to the actions the Government has taken to maximise the use of existing space and our work to cut small boat crossings by a third last year, the cost of hotels will fall, and we are now closing dozens of asylum hotels every month to return them to communities.Large sites provide adequate and functional accommodation for asylum seekers and are designed to be as self-sufficient as possible, helping to minimise the impact on local communities and services. They reduce demand on an already pressured private rental market and their larger capacity allows the Home Office to be agile in responding to fluctuations in demand.It is better value for money for the taxpayer to continue with these sites than to continue using hotels. The latest assessment of value for money, which excludes committed or spent costs in line with the Green Book methodology, shows that large sites would be £153 million cheaper than hotels.Despite the need to stand up large sites at speed, controls were in place to assure value for money for the taxpayer. Operational challenges at the sites have changed our costs since original estimates. We continue to keep costs under review while developing ways to reduce it.The latest Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) review has upgraded the rating of the programme, meaning that the successful delivery of time, quality and cost is feasible.

Department for Transport

Electric Vehicles: China

The Lord Bishop of St Albans: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact upon national security of Chinese-made electric vehicles; and whether they plan to further investigate any risks that may arise.

Lord Davies of Gower: DfT co-chairs the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) group that developed two new international regulations related to connected vehicles – one on cyber security and one on software updates. The cyber security regulation sets out requirements to mitigate potential threats in vehicle construction, to monitor emerging threats and to respond to cyber attacks. The Government takes national security extremely seriously. The Department for Transport (DfT) works closely with the transport sector and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and other Government departments, including the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), to understand and respond to cyber vulnerabilities associated with all connected vehicles, including electric vehicles.

Department of Health and Social Care

Population

Lord Farmer: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the UK of the global decline in fertility rates.

Lord Markham: No such assessment has been made.

Birth Rate

Lord Farmer: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Abortion Act 1967 on UK birth rates.

Lord Markham: No assessment has been made of the impact of the Abortion Act 1967 on United Kingdom birth rates. Parliament decided the circumstances under which abortion can legally be undertaken. Under the act, women have access to safe, legal, regulated abortion services.

Mental Health: Boys

Lord Farmer: To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to help the mental health of boys who were impacted by the lockdown restrictions.

Lord Markham: We want to ensure that all children and young people get the mental health support they need, including boys.By the end of 2023/24 the overall spending on mental health has increased by more than £4.7 billion in cash terms since 2018/19 (before the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were introduced).There are now around 400 mental health support teams in place across England, covering 3.4 million children or around 35% of pupils in schools and colleges. We estimate this will increase to 44% by April 2024 and we are working to increase this coverage to 50% of pupils by March 2025.There are also currently around 65 locally funded early support hubs in England. These hubs are open to those aged 11 to 25 years old and, importantly, they are for anyone who may not meet the threshold to receive National Health Service support. Following a competitive commercial process from hubs across the country, the government is now providing up to £8 million to 24 existing hubs to provide even more support. This means children and young people, including boys, who are experiencing feelings of anxiety or stress will have a physical space to go to in their community when their problems first emerge, without the need for a referral.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Malawi: Droughts

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports from UNICEF that the 2023–24 El Niño phenomenon has led to the president of Malawi declaring a state of disaster in 23 out of the 28 districts in the country.

Lord Alton of Liverpool: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports from UNICEF that the 2023–24 El Niño phenomenon has led to the declaration of a national emergency in Zambia.

Lord Benyon: We share UNICEF's assessment that the El Nino phenomenon has contributed to failed rains across Southern Africa, resulting in serious drought in both Zambia and Malawi, which in turn will have a serious impact on children and the most vulnerable. We welcome the swift actions of Presidents Hichilema (Zambia) and Chakwera (Malawi) in declaring a state of national disaster and emergency across Zambia and within 23 out of 28 districts in Malawi.In Zambia, the UK is committing to the rapid expansion of the Social Cash Transfer scheme to reduce food insecurity for an additional 6 million people and pivoting our existing nutrition programmes to expand access to treatment. We deployed a UK Humanitarian Stabilisation Operations Team to support the Government of Zambia's drought response coordination. In Malawi, the UK has contributed to the Government's investment into disaster risk financing instruments which will provide an immediate response when triggered. The Malawian Government is currently preparing its own El Nino Response Plan which will outline further international assistance requirements. The UK will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Ethiopia: Armed Conflict

Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government how many members of the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative Team of Experts have been deployed to Ethiopia since 2020; for what purposes;how long each deployment lasted; and what assessment they havemade of the impact of its work.

Lord Benyon: The UK is committed to preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), including through the PSVI Team of Experts. Since its launch, the UK has deployed experts over 90 times globally to enhance UK and international efforts.From June to August 2021, an expert was deployed to Ethiopia to identify opportunities for scaling up the response to CRSV. We worked with partners to implement recommendations, including enhancing support for survivors, commissioning research into the dynamics of CRSV and deploying longer-term Gender expertise. From June to October 2022, another expert provided capacity-building training to civil society on CRSV. These deployments have provided the foundation for the UK's ongoing work on CRSV in country.

Tigray: Armed Conflict

Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of efforts since the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in November 2022 to achieve justice and accountability for conflict-related sexual violence in Tigray, and what support they are providing to those efforts.

Lord Benyon: The UK is committed to preventing and responding to conflict-related sexual violence in Ethiopia. We have consistently called for an end to the appalling gender-based violence committed across Ethiopia, including sexual violence, particularly during the Tigray conflict. We therefore welcome the recent agreement to implement a comprehensive national Transitional Justice policy aimed at accountability, redress for victims, reconciliation, and healing. The UK has called for the perpetrators to be held to account and the importance of a victim-centered, gender-sensitive approach. We will work with the Ethiopian Government and civil society in their efforts to hold perpetrators to account, including building the capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission through the UK's Human Rights and Peacebuilding programme (HARP).

Ethiopia: Crimes against Humanity

Baroness Helic: To ask His Majesty's Government what specific action they have taken to mitigate risk factors, and prevent atrocity crimes, in response to the conclusion of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia in October 2023 that “eight of the Common Risk Factors for atrocity crimes are present in Ethiopia and that there is evidence to suggest that certain indicators of majority of the Specific Risk Factors for atrocity crimes are also present”; and what steps they are taking to support continued international scrutiny and independent investigations into past and ongoing violations in Ethiopia.

Lord Benyon: The UK has repeatedly called for those responsible for atrocities in Ethiopia to be held to account. The UK was strongly supportive of the establishment of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE). The UK has deployed an expert to support the drafting of Ethiopia's national Transitional Justice Policy and we are working to promote a survivor-centred, gender-sensitive approach. We fund UNOHCHR to deploy international human rights monitors and build early warning networks of CSOs and human rights defenders. Through our Human Rights and Peacebuilding Programme, we are supporting the investigative capacity of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and facilitating dialogue between groups from across Ethiopia.  We regularly convene with likemindeds to coordinate support and ensure accountability for atrocities and human rights violations and to ensure the effective, full implementation of the Tigray peace agreement and the Transitional Justice Policy once finalised.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Rights of Way: Scotland

Lord Browne of Ladyton: To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the merits of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, and the viability of introducing similar provisions for England.

Lord Benyon: With regard to access to the countryside, England has a comprehensive network of public rights of way and the public has the ‘right to roam’ over many areas of wild, open countryside. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 currently provides the public with a right of access to areas of mountain, moor, heath, down, registered common land and coastal margin in England. There are no plans to change this. The Government recognises the importance of providing access to the outdoors for people’s health and wellbeing and is committed to ensure that everyone lives within 15 minutes’ walk of a green or blue space. As part of this we are completing work on the 2,700 mile King Charles III England Coast Path, and delivering the £16m Access for All programme across our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside to make access to green and blue spaces more inclusive.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Artificial Intelligence

Lord Watson of Wyre Forest: To ask His Majesty's Government whether they classify platforms hosting large language models as hosting providers or as publishers and content creators in their own right, and what assessment they have made of the impact of this classification on the regulation and accountability of such platforms.

Viscount Camrose: The AI Regulation White Paper recognised that allocating liability across the AI supply chain can be highly complex, particularly as these are new technologies that potentially provide a broad range of novel services and functions. The Government is working with a range of stakeholders, including regulators and legal experts, to explore this issue in more depth. More widely, the Government’s response to the AI regulation White Paper Consultation set out the case for additional targeted binding measures on highly capable general purpose AI models, including Large Language Models. The Government committed to engage with a range of experts on potential interventions in the summer.

Department for Education

Carers: Young People

Lord Young of Cookham: To ask His Majesty's Government, following statistics published on 21 March showing thatthe percentage of young carers who missed at least ten per cent of school is almost twice as high as that for pupils without caring responsibilities, what steps they are taking to improve the (1) identification of, and (2) support for, young carers in schools.

Baroness Barran: Young carers make an enormous contribution by caring for their loved ones. The department wants to ensure young carers are supported in their education and can take advantage of opportunities beyond their caring responsibilities.The department introduced The Young Carers (Needs Assessments) Regulations in 2015. This is an assessment of needs, conducted by the local authority which must consider whether it is appropriate or excessive for the child or young person to provide care for the person in question, in light of the young carer’s needs and wishes. It also helps to determine whether the care which the young carer provides, or intends to provide, impacts on the young carer’s well-being, education and development.The department added young carers to the annual school census in 2023 for the first time and identified 38,983 young carers, raising their visibility in the school system and allowing schools to better identify and support their young carers. This is providing the department with strong evidence on both the numbers of young carers and their educational outcomes. This also provides an annual data collection to establish long-term trends.As this is a new data collection, the department expects the quality of the data returns to improve over time as the collection becomes established. All schools (except nursery schools) must send this information as part of the spring school census. However, the recording and handling of the information is at the school’s discretion. 79% of schools recorded no young carers in 2023.The department recognises that absence is often a symptom of other problems. The department has a comprehensive support-first strategy to improve attendance, which includes:Stronger expectations of schools, trusts and local authorities to work together to tackle absence, which is set out in guidance that will become statutory in August 2024.An attendance data tool allowing early identification and intervention of pupils at risk of persistent absence, which will become mandatory from September 2024.The Attendance Action Alliance of system leaders who are working to remove barriers to attendance.Appointing Rob Tarn as the new national attendance ambassador to work with school leaders to champion attendance as well as ten expert Attendance Advisers to support local authorities and trusts.Expanding the department’s attendance mentor pilot from 5 to 15 areas from September, backed by an additional £15 million and reaching 10,000 children.Doubling the number of lead attendance hubs, bringing the total to 32 which will see nearly 2,000 schools supported to tackle persistent absence.A national communications campaign aimed to highlight the benefits of attendance and target preventable odd days of absence linked to mild illness, mild anxiety and term-time holidays.The department is also building a system of family help by reforming children’s social care. The £45 million Families First for Children Pathfinder programme is testing how multi-disciplinary family help teams can improve the support that children, families and young carers receive.

Department for Business and Trade

Small Businesses: Billing

Baroness Kennedy of Cradley: To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to help small businesses deal with late payments.

Lord Offord of Garvel: While the UK has a strong record of payment times, we are determined to see payment times fall to ensure that small businesses are given the best chance of succeeding. The Government set out policy actions in the Prompt Payment and Cash Flow which was published alongside the Autumn Statement in November 2023. These actions include extending Payment Performance Reporting Regulations with legislation being passed earlier this month, ensuring that large businesses are required to report their payment performance. The Review sets out other actions, including reforming the Prompt Payment Code and providing the Small Business Commissioner with broader powers.